


Hugs Are The Best Type Of Team Building

by orinscrivello, The_Procrastinator



Series: Marvel Shitposting [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cuddle Pile, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fluff, Gay, Gen, Happy Ending, Multi, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, No Angst, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 06:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14611368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orinscrivello/pseuds/orinscrivello, https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Procrastinator/pseuds/The_Procrastinator
Summary: This is what happens when you let a touch starved person plan your teambuilding activities.





	Hugs Are The Best Type Of Team Building

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plaid_shirt_leather_jacket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plaid_shirt_leather_jacket/gifts).



> We wrote this instead of studying for sixth form, because reasons. This is 100% how our friends actually work so we're going to pretend it's realistic.

Tony’s decision to house the entire team in the tower was fairly sensible, and something everyone appreciated. His idea of team building activities, however, was not.

“Just because _you're_ touch starved, doesn’t mean we all are.” For weeks now, Tony had been making increasingly obvious attempts to get affection from everyone, and Clint was getting a bit sick of it.

“I’m not touch starved! I just…” Tony trailed off, trying to find a logic explanation for his suggestion that everyone curl up in his mattress-floored cinema room and watch a film together. He didn’t know what Clint was complaining about. It was perfectly normal to want to snuggle up with your teammates, right? “...I think it would help us fight better if we watched Batman Vs Superman, what not to do and everything?”

“That’s… actually a semi-decent idea. Fine. But don't expect me to get involved with the cuddle pile. I’m not indulging your need for affection.”

“On Asgard, warriors engage in physical affection as a form of bonding. I think this is an excellent idea,” Thor interjected, from his position near the toaster, waiting for his pop tarts to cook.

“What exactly do you mean by physical affection? That could mean a _lot_ of different things. I’m definitely down for whatever it means, but I’d kinda like to know what that is in advance” Tony wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, just in case his words hadn’t conveyed his meaning clearly enough

Thor grins. “Any form of physical contact between warriors is considered to be acceptable. Attachments between them make them fight harder to defend those they care about.”

“We’re not having an orgy. Ever. We’re just not. I’m leaving before you start planning the details.” Clint walked towards the door, and then totally ignored it in favour of the vent located on the wall just next to it. He slid inside with far more grace than is to be expected of a muscular guy trying to fit into a tiny space.

It was then that Natasha wandered in. “What did you do to Clint this time, Tony?” Natasha seemed halfway between amused and resigned.

“Why do you always assume it’s me? It was Thor this time! He suggested an orgy.”

“...Why the fuck?”

“Because I suggested a team movie night slash cuddle pile.”

“Once again, why the fuck?”

Tony had just opened his mouth to speak when a muffled voice from the vent yelled: “Tony’s touch starved!”

“If you don't shut up, I _will_ turn the heating on, I swear to God. And you won’t be welcome at the movie night.” The only response was the faint noise of Clint shuffling away through the vents.

Natasha sighed heavily. “When are we doing this?”

When Tony had told the rest of the team, nobody had quite taken him seriously. After all, they were all adults, and planning what basically amounted to a sleepover seemed a bit childish. On reflection, Steve thought, as he settled down on the mattress covered floor of the cinema room, he really should have expected this to be real. Tony being immature shouldn’t have been particularly difficult to believe, not after living with him for 7 months.

The entire team (bar Clint, who’d disappeared off somewhere a few hours earlier) was getting cosy around him, though that meant different things for different people. Thor was wrapped in a few blankets and sprawled out on his side, with a huge stack of pop tarts on a plate in front of him. Bruce had chosen to lean against a wall, seemingly a bit uncomfortable with the idea of relaxing and letting go, for obvious reasons. Tony, ever the nuisance, was lying on Bruce, resting his head on his lap and poking the other man every so often in the hope of getting a reaction.

Beside Steve sat Natasha, with Bucky lying across both of them. It wasn’t the most comfortable situation; Bucky was fairly heavy. Still, Steve was pretty happy, not that he’d admit that. Tony didn’t need the encouragement.

The movie started, and slowly, everyone started to move closer together. 20 minutes in, they’d all given up the pretence of watching the film, instead resettling into a weird tangle of limbs. Steve’s head was on someone’s chest, and there was a leg thrown across him, but he had no idea which limb belonged to which person. It was a bit of a mess, sure, but it was actually really relaxing and peaceful.

Until something or another exploded on screen, and the sound of something bashing off metal came from overhead, followed by a loud cry of “Ow, fuck!”, and then Clint falling from the ceiling. There was a chorus of groans as he landed on top of everyone, followed by a bunch of swearing as everyone hit each other in their efforts to move away.

“So,” Tony said with a grin, “what exactly were you doing in the vents?”

Clint, who had finally moved off of everyone, stood up and folded his arms defensively. “Nothing. I was just on my way to the kitchen.

“Which one is it? Nothing, or going to the kitchen. It can't be both.” Clint glared at Tony.

“Fine, I was watching from the vents. I was expecting it to go terribly, so I wanted to be able to say I told you so but…” he paused for a second, and then spoke in a hurry, “thisactuallylooksreallynice.”

“What was that?” Tony smirked, looking rather smug for a man who was being crushed in a cuddle pile. Clint scowled.

“You heard me” He snapped, but his voice had lost its bite. “Can we please just put the movie back on?”

“Yeah.” Tony concedes, aware that if he persisted, he risked pushing Clint away.

Clint nudged Natasha with his foot. “Make room.” Natasha shuffled over, leaving a gap for Clint beside Steve and Tony. He dropped down into the space, settling as the film started again.

In spite of the somewhat violent movie, an air of contentment came over the group. Tony smiled softly, hoping nobody could see his face amidst the tangle of limbs. He’d always found that there was a certain sort of happiness he only felt when in close contact with others, and right now, he felt it with such intensity, it felt like he was going to burst.

Something about the head resting on his leg and the body sprawled across him made him feel safer and more loved than ever before. The closest he’d ever got to this was when he was lying in post-coital bliss, tangled with his bed partner at the time, but this was better, so much better.

For Steve, it was a reminder of the war, of how, on the coldest nights, the soldiers would huddle together for warmth. It took him back to before Bucky fell from that train, to before his life fell apart. Now, without the looming fear of death, Steve allowed himself to simply indulge in the feeling of being held by the most important people in his life.

Bucky was reminded of before the war, when he and Steve shared an apartment and a bed, too broke to afford any better at first, then to keep Steve warm through the winter when his health was at its worst, and eventually because they couldn’t imagine sleeping apart. After everything that had happened to him in the time since then, it was nice to have something stay the same.

In Natasha’s case, it was a little bit more bittersweet. Curling up like this, with other people, reminded her of The Red Room, when she was still young enough to be allowed friends, before they were forced to kill each other to survive. It reminded her of her first friend, Tatiana, who’d been like a sister to her, and all the good bits of her childhood.

Clint didn’t have many memories associated with the warmth and affection he was now receiving, but the one rare memory did come to mind: what happened in Budapest. He opened his mouth to say as much to Nat, before stopping, too happy with the peace to risk disturbing it.

For the first time since the… _accident_ , Bruce felt truly calm. Usually, he had to fight to suppress his worse side, and though it was so natural by now that he barely noticed it at times, now he could _really_ let go and relax. Even with meditation, he had never before reached this degree of tranquillity.

And Thor… Thor was just happy to be there.


End file.
